L
Leigh P
Guest
There are not many people who when they talk I feel what they say goes without question. When it comes to information and validity though it doesn’t get much better than Alan Aragon. You can bet that when he speaks, it's truthful. Funny enough he of all people will tell you not to believe anything just because and to always ask why, what, who and how come.
Leigh Peele-Alright Alan, on the off chance someone reading doesn't know who you are, give us a brief rundown, a bio to Alan Aragon.
Alan Aragon-I'm a student of science as it relates to improving the body, both functionally and aesthetically. I'm a contributing editor to Men's Health, and I also do a monthly column in their mag called Ask The Weight Loss Coach. On a day-to-day basis, I'm a private practice nutritional counselor. When I'm not in the office counseling and writing, I'm giving continuing education lectures to registered dietitians, personal trainers, and strength/conditioning coaches. I also do ongoing corporate wellness presentations for Tesco. A recent gig I picked up was becoming the exclusive nutrition consultant of the Southern California Soccer Academy. Somewhere among all that, I find slivers of time to raise my 2 boys and harass my wife.
Leigh Peele-That is quite a bio and a modest one at that because I am aware of far more that you have done and achieved. Perhaps one of my favorite achievements of yours is the publication of your book */Girth Control: The Science of Fat Loss & Muscle Gain/*. Can you give us a little run down on what this book is about and who it is for?
Alan Aragon-Girth Control... The name makes me chuckle because I've been repeatedly ribbed by friends who tell me it sounds like a manual for male sexual enhancement. Well, being not too far removed from that, the superficial goal for book is about learning how to achieve a better physique on a permanent basis. The deeper goal is to teach people the skill of taking the constantly evolving barrage of fitness information and either rejecting or applying it through the skill of scientifically critical thought. Put more simply, the book is just as much a guide on how to fish as it is a fish in and of itself. As far as intended audience goes, I've rarely heard complaints from the online fitness community that it's either too incomprehensible, or conversely, too simplistic. Fitness professionals, and research-hungry layfolk will enjoy the book. I actually didn't have a target audience in mind when I wrote the book, I just pretty much wrote about what I personally am interested in, which is nutrition, training, supplementation, and the science that pulls it all together.
Leigh Peele-I don't know Alan, depends on your point of view because I think reading Girth Control for most would help with male sexual enhancement or at very least their dating pool.
You mentioned what I feel is one of the most important aspects of
fitness education or any education for that matter, the process of elimination and weeding out the good from the bad. What sets off your B.S meter?
Alan Aragon-Great physiques set of my BS meter! I make that generalization partially in jest, because of course there are exceptions. However, the overwhelming majority of folks with cover model physiques seem to give the absolute worst advice. For example, "This works for me, therefore, this is the best way, and you should do it too". Another one is the automatic recommendation to supplement the diet with stuff that's already abundant in the diet. A prime example of this is BCAA. Will it hurt? Of course not.
Will it work better than the BCAA within food? This hasn't been systematically measured, let alone proven. Are there examples of higher leucine content being less effective than lower leucine content in
research? Yes. Will those supping BCAA experience benefits due to placebo? Definitely. Until research proves me wrong on this, it's saving my clients (and myself) some sushi money. Another thing that sets off my sensors is when someone classifies a food or food product as extremely bad for the body and to be avoided at all costs. The whole "clean eating" thing really bugs me. People almost make a religion out of avoiding long lists of foods, ultimately to their detriment, and that of those in their immediate surroundings. It's comical. Most people who are devoted to "clean" eating can't logically define what "clean" means within the context of fitness and/or health. Then you have the more-is-better camp who believes that if a little fish oil is good for you, enough to deep-fry a turkey is even better.
Another thing that really sets off the BS meter is the idea that you MUST take this exotic berry juice (insert whatever MLM product you want), and without it, your health and longevity will suffer. I realize that's not the explicit message given by the sales reps, but it's certainly implicit in their sales pitch. And that's bull****.
Leigh Peele-This is why I like you Alan, you get right to it. Still there has to be a FEW secrets out there to gaining a successful body comp, even if that secret happens to be common sense. Care to give us 3 things that anyone training to improve their body composition should be doing, the absolute “Alan must haves” of any program.
Alan Aragon-
1) Keep your eyes on YOU. It's fine to get inspired by others' physiques, but you have to set your own personal standards. People tend to fixate on their weaknesses, while at the same time obsess over the strengths of others. That's a surefire way to stay eternally frustrated. It's a healthier approach to acknowledge your own strengths, and use them as benchmarks by which to bring up your weaknesses. Learn to give yourself a pat on the back for the improvements you make. Keep your eyes on YOU, don't let the achievements of others dictate your obsessions.
2) Question fitness advice given to you by others. "why" is one of the most powerful words you can put in your vocabulary. Investigating the reasoning behind the advice will often reveal that the answer is "just because", rendering the advice anywhere from helpful, to dangerous, to just a plain waste of time and resources. I encourage my clients, students, and colleagues to question everyone's advice, including mine. I firmly believe that the better you can sharpen your thinking, the better you can continue to sharpen your physique.
3) Minimize the number of variables you alter en route to the goal. This helps control the experiment, so to speak. For example, even though my focus is nutrition, I still encourage people to leave their diet alone if they're happy with it, and alter their exercise program first. Then they can see how far they can get on that change alone. For all they know, that one change could have been all that was necessary, and hallelujah, there was no need to screw with the diet. Once you reach a progress plateau, then you can re-examine your options. This example goes both ways. If someone loves their training program, keep it in place but alter the diet as minimally as possible for progress to occur. Of course, there are folks who have not a clue what they're doing (or they've been haphazard and inconsistent), and need to start from scratch by laying out a plan that covers everything. Even in that case, the idea is to minimize the number of program alterations, and keep things simple.
Leigh Peele-Alright Alan, on the off chance someone reading doesn't know who you are, give us a brief rundown, a bio to Alan Aragon.
Alan Aragon-I'm a student of science as it relates to improving the body, both functionally and aesthetically. I'm a contributing editor to Men's Health, and I also do a monthly column in their mag called Ask The Weight Loss Coach. On a day-to-day basis, I'm a private practice nutritional counselor. When I'm not in the office counseling and writing, I'm giving continuing education lectures to registered dietitians, personal trainers, and strength/conditioning coaches. I also do ongoing corporate wellness presentations for Tesco. A recent gig I picked up was becoming the exclusive nutrition consultant of the Southern California Soccer Academy. Somewhere among all that, I find slivers of time to raise my 2 boys and harass my wife.
Leigh Peele-That is quite a bio and a modest one at that because I am aware of far more that you have done and achieved. Perhaps one of my favorite achievements of yours is the publication of your book */Girth Control: The Science of Fat Loss & Muscle Gain/*. Can you give us a little run down on what this book is about and who it is for?
Alan Aragon-Girth Control... The name makes me chuckle because I've been repeatedly ribbed by friends who tell me it sounds like a manual for male sexual enhancement. Well, being not too far removed from that, the superficial goal for book is about learning how to achieve a better physique on a permanent basis. The deeper goal is to teach people the skill of taking the constantly evolving barrage of fitness information and either rejecting or applying it through the skill of scientifically critical thought. Put more simply, the book is just as much a guide on how to fish as it is a fish in and of itself. As far as intended audience goes, I've rarely heard complaints from the online fitness community that it's either too incomprehensible, or conversely, too simplistic. Fitness professionals, and research-hungry layfolk will enjoy the book. I actually didn't have a target audience in mind when I wrote the book, I just pretty much wrote about what I personally am interested in, which is nutrition, training, supplementation, and the science that pulls it all together.
Leigh Peele-I don't know Alan, depends on your point of view because I think reading Girth Control for most would help with male sexual enhancement or at very least their dating pool.
You mentioned what I feel is one of the most important aspects of
fitness education or any education for that matter, the process of elimination and weeding out the good from the bad. What sets off your B.S meter?
Alan Aragon-Great physiques set of my BS meter! I make that generalization partially in jest, because of course there are exceptions. However, the overwhelming majority of folks with cover model physiques seem to give the absolute worst advice. For example, "This works for me, therefore, this is the best way, and you should do it too". Another one is the automatic recommendation to supplement the diet with stuff that's already abundant in the diet. A prime example of this is BCAA. Will it hurt? Of course not.
Will it work better than the BCAA within food? This hasn't been systematically measured, let alone proven. Are there examples of higher leucine content being less effective than lower leucine content in
research? Yes. Will those supping BCAA experience benefits due to placebo? Definitely. Until research proves me wrong on this, it's saving my clients (and myself) some sushi money. Another thing that sets off my sensors is when someone classifies a food or food product as extremely bad for the body and to be avoided at all costs. The whole "clean eating" thing really bugs me. People almost make a religion out of avoiding long lists of foods, ultimately to their detriment, and that of those in their immediate surroundings. It's comical. Most people who are devoted to "clean" eating can't logically define what "clean" means within the context of fitness and/or health. Then you have the more-is-better camp who believes that if a little fish oil is good for you, enough to deep-fry a turkey is even better.
Another thing that really sets off the BS meter is the idea that you MUST take this exotic berry juice (insert whatever MLM product you want), and without it, your health and longevity will suffer. I realize that's not the explicit message given by the sales reps, but it's certainly implicit in their sales pitch. And that's bull****.
Leigh Peele-This is why I like you Alan, you get right to it. Still there has to be a FEW secrets out there to gaining a successful body comp, even if that secret happens to be common sense. Care to give us 3 things that anyone training to improve their body composition should be doing, the absolute “Alan must haves” of any program.
Alan Aragon-
1) Keep your eyes on YOU. It's fine to get inspired by others' physiques, but you have to set your own personal standards. People tend to fixate on their weaknesses, while at the same time obsess over the strengths of others. That's a surefire way to stay eternally frustrated. It's a healthier approach to acknowledge your own strengths, and use them as benchmarks by which to bring up your weaknesses. Learn to give yourself a pat on the back for the improvements you make. Keep your eyes on YOU, don't let the achievements of others dictate your obsessions.
2) Question fitness advice given to you by others. "why" is one of the most powerful words you can put in your vocabulary. Investigating the reasoning behind the advice will often reveal that the answer is "just because", rendering the advice anywhere from helpful, to dangerous, to just a plain waste of time and resources. I encourage my clients, students, and colleagues to question everyone's advice, including mine. I firmly believe that the better you can sharpen your thinking, the better you can continue to sharpen your physique.
3) Minimize the number of variables you alter en route to the goal. This helps control the experiment, so to speak. For example, even though my focus is nutrition, I still encourage people to leave their diet alone if they're happy with it, and alter their exercise program first. Then they can see how far they can get on that change alone. For all they know, that one change could have been all that was necessary, and hallelujah, there was no need to screw with the diet. Once you reach a progress plateau, then you can re-examine your options. This example goes both ways. If someone loves their training program, keep it in place but alter the diet as minimally as possible for progress to occur. Of course, there are folks who have not a clue what they're doing (or they've been haphazard and inconsistent), and need to start from scratch by laying out a plan that covers everything. Even in that case, the idea is to minimize the number of program alterations, and keep things simple.